One remark I would like to make though – the day before we took her to the vet she scratched the area of the lump furiously which makes me believe that perhaps it was a ganglion. But who knows. This is Mary.

Since we came from the vet though, she has been acting strangely. Mary is not a very playful cat and only my husband ever seems able to get her in the mood. But lately, you look at her or move in her direction and she hops like Tigger from Winnie the Pooh and bobs her head back and forth like one of those cheap head bobbing dolls people tend to put on the dashboards of their cars. And then she would just attack the carpet. Last night it looked like she was trying to bite my husband’s pants.

Who knows where this behaviour comes from. As I said, this is Mary and there is a very good reason her name is what it is.

As mentioned in a previous post, Mary recently went to the vet to have her teeth cleaned. We made that decision a week before while the vet was giving her an injection as her skin flared up again.
Fortunately, Mary couldn’t associate the trip back to the vet for her teeth with me. My husband dropped her off in the morning and collected her again in the afternoon. All I could think of the whole day is “my poor baby, alone and scared and drugged in a place which doesn’t hold fond memories”. I couldn’t wait to go home to see her after work. I was expecting a drugged and goofy cat, but she seemed no worse for the wear. The vet said we should keep an eye on any swelling of the gums, but Mary didn’t have any issues afterwards: clean breath and clean toofies.

So why are we taking her back to the vet barely two weeks after her last visit?

I don’t know whether I am an overly paranoid human companion, but Mary has a lump in her neck. It isn’t something under the skin either, so it is not an abscess. The lump is connected to deeper tissue and we feel this warrants a trip to the vet. I would rather Mary hate me for a couple of days (or weeks, you never know!) than have her fall ill if we could have prevented it with early detection.

I think this time around I dread going to the vet as much as she does.

This leads to a bit of a concern regarding the cat’s collar – not only must an owner make sure the collar itself is stretchable, so it can easily slip off if their wearer is in danger of choking or worse, but it should also be ultimately able to tear or snap to get them out of a jam. That being said, the collar not being as fixed as it could be does lead to the more rambunctious feline losing more than their fair share.

And this presents a difficulty in and of itself – what about the tag?  One can only have so many collars around the house, especially with a cat that goes through them like most people go through underwear.  And of course there’s no way we would allow Mary out without a tag on her collar.  If she were lost and someone picked her up, they’d have no recourse but to deliver her to the SPCA, which (like many well-intended animal organisations) is animal welfare- and not animal rights-oriented, and largely a bureaucratic farce, so definitely not a place I’d like my girl to ever see the inside of.  This is assuming, of course, that those who find her have good intentions and aren’t just out to steal her for themselves.  And who wouldn’t want to?  You’ve seen her pictures, right?

To cut a long story short, the pain of having to have a set of pre-engraved tags, or having to rush about looking for an engraver and/or pet tags while her majestic-ness sits at home growing more inclined to pommel any people-flesh she sees exposed with her incredibly long claws while we sleep, is not conducive to a healthy cat-and-person relationship.

Imagine our glee (srsly, glee) at finding a little collar called the Rogz – it’s a little plastic tag doohickey that allows one to scribble/print down the relevant details and snap the tag together themselves.  Also handy if you need to change said details.  You can check out their site for more info (and no, we’re not getting commission from them, just appreciating the product), but the pic below gives an idea of what it looks like:

Plastic Rogz tags

The following images show Mary wearing her own Rogz tags – obviously they suit her rather… er… active lifestyle:

Cat and tag caught unawares

And from another angle

Waking with a camera up the schnozz

Cat, unamused.

How to Tell if Your Cat is Plotting to Kill You

Hope to be back soon.

I was absolutely mortified! Firstly because she makes herself at home in someone else’s flat and secondly because she plays with someone else. Mary does not like to play with me. She plays with my partner yes, but not with me. I kind of feel betrayed to be honest. At least she is not a problem. I am thankful that the neighbour is not complaining about her spending time in his flat, but instead, that he welcomes it. I still can’t help taking Mary’s “disloyalty” personally. Should I?!

On a different note, we are back at the battle of the food. We managed to get our hands on a few precious pouches of that veterinary food, but that has run out. She now refuses to eat anything else. She will nibble on some biscuits, but pulls up her nose at anything else. We cooked her some liver, I even tried to simulate the vet food by boiling chicken and rice and making it in to a moosh. Not a chance. I bought her chicken loaf, but that is not good enough either. I am starting to get really worried because she is losing weight (and no she is not eating at the neighbour’s either).

Tonight we will go and get some fish. I am sure she will eat that. In fact, I know she will eat it. But that will also mean that chances are her skin inflammation will be back soon.

After all this, she still thinks the neighbour is better than us.

Damn cat.

Unfortunately, we live in the basin of the city where this Black South Easter turns. When it blows, trust me, you know it. This also means kitty gets locked inside. This also means we have a very, very unhappy cat on our hands who has no problem in letting us know exactly how unhappy she is about not having access to outside.  She keeps us up all night and howls non-stop. She drives us insane. It is not fun trying to sleep with a loudly complaining cat in the background doing her utmost to keep you awake. And of course, she no longer cares about being squirted. Mr. Squirty has lost its effectiveness.

When she is outside, she is in her element. And what she loves more than being outside, is if we are outside with her.

Recently, she came back from outside for a nibble. Her food was finished and when we did not jump up and give her biscuits, she went outside again. Ten minutes later I went to look for her and found her crunching on something (as in literally, you could her “crunch, crunch”). I first thought someone gave her a piece of meat or something and I panicked. Upon closer inspection, I saw she was eating a mouse, and the crunching sound was the head in her mouth. I felt insulted – we are obviously not important enough to share in the spoils of the hunt. No gifts brought to the lair (for which, I have to admit, I am eternally grateful!).

This morning, I noticed that she has a wound in her neck. It is a deep gaping hole. Fortunately the vet gave me extra antibiotics which I will give to her to keep infection at bay. If that does not help, it is back to the vet again.

The Hunter with the Hunted

The Wound

]]> http://www.maryqueenofcats.org.za/2007/12/03/the-killer-who-drives-us-insane/feed/ 1 http://www.maryqueenofcats.org.za/2007/10/14/mary-saves-the-phone/ http://www.maryqueenofcats.org.za/2007/10/14/mary-saves-the-phone/#comments Sun, 14 Oct 2007 11:32:01 +0000 Nikki http://www.maryqueenofcats.org.za/2007/10/14/mary-saves-the-phone/ I recently got a new Samsung U700 cellphone, which of course is not really such a good thing. I am a scatter brain and I have a tendency to forget things in places.

And so it was this week that I went to our copier/scanner machine at the office (which happens to be on the third floor and I work on the first floor). I had my cell in my hand and trying to operate the big scanning contraption turned out to be a bit of a hassle while trying to hold on to a cellphone. Thus I placed the cellphone on the floor by my feet, making a mental note not to forget it.

A while later I received a phone call from a colleague asking me whether I was interested in buying a phone. I informed him that I recently got a new phone but thanks anyway. My colleague was persistent. I decided to indulge him and asked him what kind of phone and how much.

He said it was a Samsung and it came in a camouflage sock.

It hit me like a ton of bricks: I forgot my phone at the scanning copier machine thing, on the floor.

I went to the third floor to collect my phone and asked my colleague how he knew it was my phone.

His answer? “The cat gave it away”. (I have a picture of Mary on my phone).

So all you cat lovers out there – it pays to have a picture of your cat on your phone!